Mechanical reversing device



F. .A. GILB Jan. '20, 1931.

MECHANICAL REVERS ING DEVICE W703 ear/M86745 HTTOENEIY 19,28 2Sheets-Sheei- 1 Filed April 10 Jan. 20, 1931. F, A, lLB 1,789,867

MECHANICAL REVERE ING DEVICE Filed April 10, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 qTTOKNEY Patented Jan. 20, 1931 PATENT OFFICE FRANK A. GILZB, or LosANGELES, cannon-111A MECHANICAL REVEBSING DEVICE Application filed April1-0, 1928. Serial No. 268,997.

This invention, which is termed a mechanical reversing device, isamechanical organization adapted to impart alternate opposite rotation toa driven shaft from a drive shaft 55 which is constantly rotated in asingle direction. This organization is particularly adaptable for useinconnectionwith washing machines, etc., in which it is necessary torotate a machine alternately in opposite directions-over brief periodsof time. In ordinary practice, machines of this kind are gen erallyreversedin their, operation by reversing the rotation of thedrive'shaft, and in case an ordinary steam or gas engine is used,

there is obviously a great loss of power and I time and, consequently, adecrease 1n efflciency incurred in the stopping and reversing of theengme or gear connected therew1th. In case electric motors are used, themotor 1s obviously subject to a constant varying load,

as the reversing of the motor, as'is well known to thosefamil1arw1th-th1s art, is a source of great power consumption andconsequent 1ncrease in expense in proportion to the amount of work whichis accurately performed.

ed to automatically impart opposite rotation over brief periods of timeto a driven shaft from a drive shaft which is constantly rotated in asingle direction.

It is a further object of my invention to develop such an organizationwhich is simple and economical in its construction, positive in itsoperation, and comprises a minimum of wearing parts.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will be better understoodfrom the following specification and claims.

Referring to the drawings, which illustrate a preferred embodiment of myinvention, chosen for illustrative purposes only,

Fig. 1 is a plan view, with a cover member removed.

Fig. 2 is an elevational section along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3'is an elevational section along the line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a sectional view along the. line 4-4 of Fig. 3, and Y Fig. 5is a. sectional vi'ewtaken substantially along theline 5-5 of Fig. 2.

More particularly describing myinvention as herein illustrated, numeral11 indic'ates a driving organization, such as a motor, having a driveshaft 12 and a driving pinion 13. The mechanical reversing organizationgenerally indicated at 14 is enclosed within a housing .15, comprising acover member 16 and a bottom member 17, supported in any suitablemanner, such as the legs, indicated at 18. r

v The housing 15 is provided with oppositely disposed bearings 19-19,adapted to receive what may term a driven shaft 20. A gear, which I mayfor the purpose of explanation term a driving gear 21, is rotatablymounted upon the driven shaft 20, and is adapted to be driven by thepinion 13, mounted on the drive shaft 12. V

In order that the driving gear 21 may have an uninterrupted. rotationabout the driven shaft 20, friction eliminating means such as the rollerbearing organization 22 may be interposed between the driving gear 21and the driven shaft 20 in a manner-such as is illustrated in Fig. 3.

- Oppositely disposed on either side of the driving gear 21 and mountedupon the driven shaft 20, I provide what Imay term clutch organizations,generally indicated at 30-30.

These organizations, which'are similar in their construction, compriseclutch engaging members 31-31 in the form of collars or sleeves andhaving clutch engaging faces 32-32 formed therein.

Mounted in the clutch engaging members and enclosed within the collars,are provided what I may term clutch members 33-33. These clutch membersare rigidly mounted upon the driven shaft 20 by means such as the keys34-34:, and may comprise any standard clutch construction, beingprovided with inner engaging faces 35-35, adapted to engage the clutchengagingfaces 32-32 of the clutch engaging members.

For the purpose of describing this organization, the clutch engagingmember 31 1s termed a forward rotating member and is rigidly connectedto the driving gear 21 by means such as screws 36, which engage a flangeor other suitablyformed projection 37 formed upon the gear 21.

The clutch engaging member 31 is termed a rearward rotating member, andis provided with means for receiving a reverse rotation from the gear21. The construction of this reverse rotating organization comprises asleeve 40, which is integrally formed with or ri 'idl attached to theclutch en a 'in mem- C #3 O V C ber 31, and extends inwardlytoward thedriving gear 21, terminating in an inner gear 41.

This sleeve 40 is rotatable within an outer collar 43, which isexternally provided with gear teeth 44 andwith flattened faces 45- 45,which are received by the upwardly extending prongs 4646 of a yokemember 47 The yoke member 47 is rigidly attached to the bottom housingmember 17 by means such as the bolts 48. It will be understood that thiscollar 43, having the outer gear periphery 44, is held stationary bymeans of the yoke 47, and for the purpose of later explanation, it willbe termed a saationary gear.

A plurality of dual gears 50 are rotatably mounted upon the face of thedriving gear 21, which is adjacent to the rearward rotating clutchmember 30. These dual gears are retained upon the gear face by meanssuch as the bearing studs 51, and are provided with what I may term aninner gear periphery 52 and an outer gear periphery 53, these mentionedgears being adapted to engage the inner clutch driving gear 41 and theouter stationary gear 43 respectively.

It will be understood from this construction that during the rotation ofthe driving gear 21, the dual gears 50 are carried about the drive shaft20 and through the engagement of the outer teeth 53 with the stationarygear 43, the inner teeih 52 will impart a constant rotation to theclutch engaging member 31 through the inner gear 41.

It will be further understood that, by suitably proportioning the sizeof these gears, the rotation of the clutch engaging member 31 may be ofthe same annular velocity as the forward rotation of the drivinggear'21.

From the foregoing description, it will be seen that the driving gear 21is constantly rotated in what I may term a. forward driving directionand the clutch organizations 3030 are respectively rotated in a forwardand rearward driving direction, and it will be obvious that through thealternate angagement of the clutch members33 and 33' with the clutchengaging members 31 and 31, the shaft 20 may be alternately rotated inopposite directions.

For the purpose of bringing the clutch members 33 and 33 and the clutchengaging members 31 and 31 into alternate firm engagement with oneanother and maintaining this engagement until such time as the engagedmember is automatically released, I provide upon the shaft 20 oppositelydisposed slidable collars 6060, which are provided with annular channels6161, the purpose of which will be hereinafter described. The collars6060 are adapted to be laterally moved upon the shaft 20 in a directiontoward the clutch members 30-30 by means such as coil springs 6262,these springs b'eing'outwardly retained in what I may term fixed collars63- -63, mounted upon the shaft 20 in any suitable manner, such as bymeans of pins 64-64.

The slidable collars 60G0 are rendered effective to cause an engagementbetween the clutch members and the clutch engaging members by means of aplurality of levers 70, which are pivotally mounted upon an outer face,of the clutch engaging members, and are provided with pins 717l, whichare adapted to engage the clutch members 3333 upon an inward movement ofthe levers and to effect thereby a firm engagement between the clutchmembers and the clutch engaging members, as indicated by the position ofthe rearward driving clutch organization 30 in Fig. 3.

It will be understood that the springs 62 and 62 are effective to imparta lateral movement to the collars 60 and 60 in one direction only, andit is necessary to provide means for movingthese collars in an opposite,or in the form of the invention illustrated, a clutch disengagingdirection.

For this purpose I provide yoke members and 80 which are received by thechannels 61 and 61 upon the slidable collars 60 and 60, and are adaptedtobe moved laterally by means of cranks 81 and 81, said cranks beingrigidly mounted upon rotatable shafts 82 and 82, the shafts beingsupported in any suitable manner, such as by the bearings 83.

Levers 84 and 84 are outwardly mounted upon the ends of the shafts 82and 82 and are dapted to receive a partial rotation from slid ble rods85 and 85, carried in suitable bearing members 86 and 86, and inwardlyadapted to engage a cam 87 the cam engag ing end of the slidable rodsbeing optionally provided with rollers 88. The cam 87 is mounted upon ashaft 87', which is inwardly provided with a gear 89 adapted to bedriven y a worm 90 mounted upon a worm shaft 91. The worm shaft 91 isoutwardly provided with a pinion 92, which is driven through a train ofgears indicated by the 1 an alternate lateral movement to the collars 60and 60 and a consequent disengagement in the oppositely disposed clutchorganizations 30 and This cam is preferably so formed, as indicated bythe dotted lines in Fig. 5, as to provide a slight hesitant or neutralposition between the alternate d1sengagement of the clutch members, thusobviating the possibility of undue wear in the clutch members or thestripping of gears due to the possible simultaneous engagement of bothclutch members.

My invention is obviously simple in its construction, has a minimum ofwearing parts, is positive in its operation, and meets a need inindustry for an organization which will effect an automatic reversal indriven shaft rotation from a uni-directionally rotated drive shaft, andit will be understood that. while I have herein described andillustrated one specific embodiment of my invention, variousmodifications of the same may be readily adapted by those familiar withthe vrt without in the least departing from the spirit and scope of myinvention as described above andin the following claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A mechanical reversing device comprising: a drive shaft; a drivenshaft; a drive pinion on said drive shaft; a drive gear rotatablerelative to said driven shaft and engaging said pinion; clutch membersmounted on said driven shaft; means operable by the rotation of saiddrive gear for rotating said clutch members in opposite directions; andautomatic means rendering said clutch members alternately operable toimpart rotation from said drive gear to said driven shaft, saidautomatic means comprising rotatable shafts, cam means operable by saiddrive gear and adapted to impart a partial rotation to said shafts, andmeans mounted between said cam rotated shafts and said clutch membersadapted to move said clutch members laterally upon said driven shaft.

2. A mechanical reversing device comprising: a drive shaft; a drivenshaft; a drive pinion on said drive shaft; a drive gear rotatablerelative to said driven shaft and engaging said pinion; clutch membersmounted on said driven shaft; means operable by the rotation of saiddrive gear for rotating said clutch members in opposite directions; andautomatic means rendering said clutch members alternately operable toimpart rotation from said drive gear to said driven shaft, saidautomatic means comprising rotatable shafts, cam means operable by saiddrive gear and adapted to impart a partial rotation to said shafts, andcrank members rigidly mounted upon said cam rotated shafts in engagementwith said clutch members and adapted to impart lateralmovement to saidclutch members shafts. V

3. A mechanical reversing device comprising: adrive shaft; a drivenshaft; a drive pinion on said drive shaft; adrivegear rotatable relativeto said driven shaft and engaging said pinion; clutch. members mountedon said driven shaft; means operable by the during'the rotation of saidrotation of said drive gear for rotating said clutch members in oppositedirections; and

automatic means rendering said clutch members alternately operable .toimpart rotation from said drive gear to said driven shaft, saidautomatic means comprising rotatable shafts, cam means operable bysaiddrive gear and adapted to impart a partial rotation to said shafts,c'ranl: members rigidly mounted upon said cam rotates shafts inengagement with said clutch members andadapted to impart lateralmovement to said clutch members in one direction, and resillentmeans-for. im-

parting lateral movement to said clutch members in an oppositedirection.

at. A mechanical reversing device comprising: a drive shaft; a drivenshaft; a drive pinion on said drive shaft; a drive rotatable relativetosaid driven shaft and engagii'ig said pinion; clutch members mounted onsaid driven shaft; means operable by the rotation of said drive gear forrotating said clutch members in opposite directions; and automatic meansrendering said clutch members alternately operable to impart rotationfrom said drive gear to said driven shaft, said automatic meanscomprising cam means operable by said drive gear for imparting lateralmovement to said clutch members in one direction, and coil springsengaging said clutch members and adapted to impart lateral movementthereto in a direction opposite to the movement of said cam means.

5. A mechanical reversing device comprising: a drive shaft; a drivenshaft; a drive pinion on said drive shaft; a drive gear rotatablerelative to-said driven shaft and engaging said pinion; clutch membersmounted on said driven shaft; means operable by the rotation of saiddrive gear for rotating said clutch members in opposite directions; andautomatic means rendering said clutch members alternately operable toimpart rotation from said drive gear to said driven shaft, saidautomatic means comprising rotatable shaft members, levers rigidlymounted on said shaft members, slidable members in engagement withsaid'levers, a cam rotatable by the rotation of said drive gear adaptedto impart sliding movement to said slidable members, and cranks ri'idlyemounted on 6. An organization for imparting alternate oppositerotation to a driven shaft comprising: a driving gear concentric withand rotatable about said driven shaft; means for impartinguni-directional rotation to said driving gear; a forward driving clutchengaging member rotatably mounted on said shaft in rigid engagement withsaid driving gear; a rearward driving clutch engaging member rotatablymounted on said shaft; gears interposed between said driving gear andsaid rearward driving clutch engaging member for imparting a reverserotation to said clutch engaging member; clutch members rigidly mountedon said driven shaft and adapted to be engaged by said clutch engagingmembers; and automatic means for bringing said clutch members intoalternate engagement with said clutch engaging members, said automaticmeans compriscam means operable by the rotation of said driving gear toimpart lateral movement to said clutch members in one direction andresilient means for imparting lateral movement to said clutch members inan opposite direction.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand at Los 'Angeles,California, this 28 day of March, 1928.

FRANK A. GILB.

